Hotel staff greet guests as they arrive at the Ritz-Carlton’s annual Formula One Grand Prix party (Photo by Richard Burnett)

Montrealers are not wanting for entertainment, attractions and distractions during summertime, but sometimes choosing the right event to go to can be tricky.

So without further ado, here are POP TART’s Top 10 choice picks for some hot fun in the summertime.

Formula One Grand Prix party at the Ritz-Carlton

The star-studded Grand Prix party I attended at the Ritz last summer was one of the most fun and most decadent parties of the year. Expect no less when the Ritz teams up with Infiniti Canada for their June 6 black-tie event, with special guest, former Grand Prix driver David Coulthard. The event will take place in the hotel’s Palm Court, Oval Room and Oval Terrace with an open Moët and Chandon champagne bar, tantalizing food stations, a men’s lounge featuring an oyster bar and whiskey station, live musical performances and spinning by DJ Abeille and DJ YO-C. The décor is by Montreal society event planner Maddy K. The fun begins on June 6, from 6 pm to 2 am. Tickets cost $295 and a portion of the proceeds will go towards the Ritz-Carlton Montreal’s partnership with local children’s charity CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation. Call 514-842-4212 or click here to purchase tickets.

Arcade Fire at Parc Jean-Drapeau

The Grammy Award-winning Arcade Fire winds down their Reflektor tour – in support of their album of the same name, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s album sales chart last October – with a big outdoor show at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Aug. 30, in the city where it all began. Click here for tickets.

Saint Jude du Village

Former rent boy, stripper, Divers/Cite Festival co-founder and veteran Hollywood publicist Puelo Deir’s second play Holy Tranity was not only the most successful play at the Montreal Fringe Festival the last two years, but, says Montreal Fringe head honcho Amy Blackmore, “one of our Top 5 bestselling plays in the history of the Montreal Fringe.” The play is about teenage stripper Santo$ who is taken under the wing of transgender queen and strip-club owner Ms. Gracie during Montreal’s glitzy sex-drugs-and-AIDS ravaged 1980s.

The French adaptation of Holy Tranity is called Saint Jude du Village,will be directed by Philippe Gobeille and stars Marc-Andre Leclair (a.k.a. ab-fab Montreal drag queen Tracy Trash) when it runs at Salle Claude-Léveillée at Place des Arts from Aug. 20-24. Expect another porn-star and drag-queen packed opening night. Click here for more info and tickets.

The Lion King

Some 70 million people worldwide have seen this terrific Broadway musical adapted from the 1994 Disney animated film, including 100,000 Montrealers during this touring production’s 4-week run in Montreal in 2012. The tour returns to Salle Wilfred-Pelletier for an additional three weeks, from Aug. 19 to Sept. 7. If there is just one piece of advice I have for anybody going to see The Lion King, though, it is to get there on time. Otherwise you will not be seated until 10 minutes into the show. That’s because the showstopping opening sequence – yes, their showstopper opens the show – requires the cast to make their way to the stage through the audience in their incredible jungle-animal puppet costumes.

Evenko presents The Lion King at Salle Wilfred-Pelletier at Montreal’s Place des Arts, from August 19 to Sept. 7. Click here for more info and tickets, and click here for my exclusive backstage look at the current Lion King tour.

Carifiesta Parade

Carifiesta is hands-down Montreal’s most colourful and exciting parade – more fun than even this city’s fabled Gay Pride parade. This year’s 39th edition takes place July 5.

Carifiesta is a tradition born of slavery in Trinidad and Tobago, when French colonial masters hosted huge masquerade balls three days before Ash Wednesday. Slaves got a day off and mimicked their masters at their own parties, a tradition that morphed into Trinidad’s famed Carnival. That tradition migrated north to Miami, NYC, Toronto and Montreal.

Carifiesta runs along St-Catherine Street between Rue Du Fort and Square Phillips. Click here for the official Carifiesta website.

Music – Quebec: From Charlebois to Arcade Fire

The McCord Museum’s new exhibition Music – Quebec: From Charlebois to Arcade Fire explores which songs and artists on the Quebec music scene from the 1960s to today have contributed to Quebec’s sense of identity. From folk to rap, rock to world music and yé-yé to disco, artists included in the exhibit include Diane Dufresne, Félix Leclerc, Loco Locass and Rufus Wainwright. The exhibition runs until Oct. 13. Click here for more info and tickets.

Comic legend Don Rickles at Just For Laughs

At the age of 89, insult comic Don Rickles is still going strong. Some years ago when I was working on a gonzo travel story in Vegas, Mr. Rickles (who was headlining at the Orleans showroom) said, “In the old days it was just one entertainer at a hotel, not big revues, so after the shows we usually wound up at the Sands coffee shop and shot the breeze.” Rickles knew everybody and has seen everything. Don’t miss this opportunity to witness the comedy legend and pop icon bust your gut hosting two Just For Laughs galas, July 23 and 25. Click here for more details and tickets.

Bryan Ferry at Theatre St-Denis

British rock royalty and former Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry is the epitome of cool rock elegance – I know, because I met him briefly once, in his dressing room at MusiquePlus some years ago, and Ferry was a prince. Anyway, Ferry has embarked on his first North American tour in three years and will headline Theatre St-Denis on Sept.26. Click here for more info and tickets.

The OSM performs A Quiet Place by Leonard Bernstein

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal will perform Leonard Bernstein’s three-act opera A Quiet Place – which tells the tumultuous tale of a gay son in a family dealing with death – in concert version. Presented in collaboration with Pride Montréal during Montreal’s Gay Pride week, OSM Maestro Kent Nagano – who was a student of Bernstein – recently told me, “I am very proud we are doing this show.”

The OSM will perform A Quiet Place by Leonard Bernstein at the Maison symphonique de Montréal on Aug. 15. Click here for more info and tickets.

Tiken Jah Fakoly at Nuits d’Afrique

No question, Ivory Coast’s roots-reggae superstar Tiken Jah Fakoly is an adopted son of Montreal. “When I am in Montreal I feel very much at home,” Fakoly told me the last time he was in Montreal, in 2012. “There is a love affair between us.”

That likely has everything to do with Fakoly’s favourite-ever concert which he headlined in Montreal at the 2002 Nuits d’Afrique festival shortly after he contracted malaria in Africa. Fakoly was so sick he was bedridden in his Montreal hotel room for three straight days popping Larium pills. On the fourth day Fakoly didn’t know if he’d have the strength to even make it to the outdoor Nuits d’Afrique stage. But 10,000 diehard reggae fans stood there waiting for him, a vigil of sorts.

“I willed myself on stage and I sang a great concert,” Fakoly recalls. “I was so happy! In all my years of performing, that concert is the one that has most marked my career.”

Expect an adoring audience when Tiken Jah Fakoly headlines Montreal’s Olympia Theatre on July 9, as part of Nuits d’Afrique’s 28th annual world-music festival. Click here for more info and tickets.

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Trinidadian living legend Calypso Rose headlines a free outdoor concert on July 20

It was pretty much pandemonium when Montrealers cheered on Ivory Coast reggae hero Tiken Jah Fakoly at his sold-out concert at the Olympia Theatre earlier this year. Fakoly called for peace and reconciliation among all Ivorians, the same message he’ll bring back to Montreal as godfather of this year’s 26th annual Festival International Nuits d’Afrique, in the city he considers something of a second home

“When I am in Montreal I feel very much at home,” Fakoly told this reporter in French, on the eve of his last Montreal concert. “There is a love affair between us.”

That likely has everything to do with Fakoly’s all-time favourite concert which he headlined in Montreal at the 2002 Nuits d’Afrique festival shortly after he contracted malaria in Africa. Fakoly was so sick he was bedridden in his Montreal hotel room for 72 hours popping Larium pills. On the fourth day Fakoly didn’t know if he’d have the strength to even make it to the outdoor Nuits d’Afrique stage.

But 10,000 diehard reggae fans stood there waiting for him, a vigil of sorts.

“I willed myself on stage and I sang a great concert,” Fakoly recalled. “I was so happy! In [all my] years of performing, that concert is the one that has most marked my career.”

Ten years after that fateful concert Fakoly returns to Nuits d’Afrique. The roots-reggae master – whose enormous popularity in Quebec bridges racial and linguistic divides – is delighted to be closing the festival with a free outdoor concert on July 22 at 9:30 p.m. at the Parterre du Quartier des spectacles (the sloping green space located just south of de Maisonneuve between the new OSM hall and the St-Laurent metro station).

“I try to educate people with my music,” Fakoly says. “It is reggae music that empowered and compelled me to spread a message to all Africans that we must change our behaviours if we want peace and reconciliation.”

This year, Nuits d’Afrique is presenting a record 91 shows and works­hops, given by more than 500 artists from 32 countries. Since its inaugural edition in 1987, founding president and artistic director Lamine Touré has sought to establish Nuits d’Afrique on equal footing with Montreal’s bigger festivals. It hasn’t come easy but the award-winning small-budget festival has managed to put Montreal on the world-music map.

Here are some of this year’s other highlights:

There are six big-ticket indoor shows by international world-music headliners in the Grands événements series, notably Gnawa Diffusion who bring their reggae-tinged rock – complete with its Chaâbi and Gnawa influences – to Metropolis on July 11 for the festival’s official ope­ning concert.

French and Algerian Gnawa music band Gnawa Diffusion bring their reggae-tinged rock to Metropolis on July 11

Other must-see concerts in this series are Zimbabwean living legend Oliver Mtukudzi accompanied by his band The Black Spirits, who will wow you with their chimurenga music at Cabaret du Mile End on July 13; and the much anticipated return of the Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, at Cabaret du Mile End on July 10.

The SLRAS band – including their bandleader Rueben Koroma – really did live in refugee camps to escape the civil war that ravaged their home nation of Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002. “We were all frustrated and angry and we all had bad thoughts. I needed to occupy my time and my mind somehow, so I started looking for musicians,” Koroma once told me. “We started singing in the camps. These people needed us. They needed entertainment.”

Then Montreal musician Chris Velan and New York filmmaker Zach Niles discovered Koroma and his band – now called the Refugee All Stars – in one of the camps and chronicled their story in the hit 2005 documentary film Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars.

When the SLRAS band headlined at Nuits d’Afrique in 2010 it was easily one of Montreal’s most compelling and emotional concerts of the year. The band’s July 10 concert should be equally memorable.

Zimbabwean living legend Oliver Mtukudzi and his band The Black Spirits bring their chimurenga music to Cabaret du Mile End on July 13

Nuits d’Afrique has also booked four international stars to close each outdoor night: Sergent Garcia (July 19); Trinidad’s Calypso Rose, who at 72 is nothing less than a living legend (July 20); Nimbaya from Guinee (July 21); and this year’s festival godfather, Tiken Jah Fakoly (July 22). All the outdoor concerts will be held at the Parterre du Quartier des spectacles.

The festival is also bringing back its successful “Nuits d’Afrique Sound System” nights at the SAT, featuring live perfor­mances and DJs (July 15 and 20).

Finally, the always very popular Village des Nuits d’Afrique – a food and crafts market that will also feature samba and African dance workshops – will open daily from July 19-22 at the Parterre du Quartier des spectacles, where there will also be a children’s village (free admission).

“It was a scary time,” says Ivory Coast’s roots-reggae superstar Tiken Jah Fakoly about the devastating civil war that brought his home country to its knees.

Things came to a head last March when Ivory Coast security forces loyal to incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo – who refused to accept electoral defeat to his political rival Alassane Ouattara – shot dead seven women at a protest in Abidjan.

“The women [protesting] that day were our mothers and their [slaughter] forced Ivorians – and all Africans – to deal with the crisis, if anything out of respect for women,” Fakoly says.

With the help of French forces, Ouattara overthrew Gbagbo in April 2011 and is now reaching out to heal Ivory Coast’s north-south divide.

But just four weeks before Gbagbo’s capture, Fakoly was in Montreal. In fact, Fakoly escaped Ivory Coast in September 2002 as civil war broke out there. He lived in exile in neighbouring Mali until 2007, then moved to Senegal where he stayed until 2010.

“I stood up against the war but my message wasn’t far from that of the rebels,” Fakoly told me at the time. “So it was prudent for me to leave. Good thing too, because a few days later government authorities came looking for me.”

At two sold-out concerts at Montreal’s Olympia Theatre last year Fakoly called for peace and reconciliation among all Ivorians. He brings that same message back to Montreal for another concert this week, in a city he considers something of a second (or third or fourth) home.

“When I am in Montreal I feel very much at home,” Fakoly tells me in French, “There is a love affair between us.”

That likely has everything to do with Fakoly’s favourite-ever concert which he headlined in Montreal at the 2002 Nuits d’Afrique festival shortly after he contracted malaria in Africa. Fakoly was so sick he was bedridden in his Montreal hotel room for three straight days popping Larium pills. On the fourth day Fakoly didn’t know if he’d have the strength to even make it to the outdoor Nuits d’Afrique stage. But 10,000 diehard reggae fans stood there waiting for him, a vigil of sorts.

“I willed myself on stage and I sang a great concert,” Fakoly recalls. “I was so happy! In [all my] years of performing, that concert is the one that has most marked my career.”

Fakoly – whose maternal language is Dioula – says one of his ancestors from the 13th century was a griot. I want to know if – like his fellow Ivorian, roots-reggae icon Alpha Blondy – Fakoly considers himself to be a modern-day griot of sorts. After all, Fakoly retains entire new songs and lyrics all in his head for great periods of time before he even writes down one word or note in the studio.

But Fakoly replies, “I try to educate people with my music. I myself was never a griot to begin with. It is reggae music that empowered and compelled me to spread a message to all Africans that we must change our behaviours if we want peace and reconciliation.”

“Bob Marley is the prophet who popularized reggae worldwide, but I really love Burning Spear because he keeps the spirits of Marcus Garvey and Dr. Martin Luther King alive,” Fakoly, 43, explains.

“I’m also really proud to be organizing the first annual edition of the African Reggae Festival which will take place in Abidjan in November 2012, and one of the headliners will be my hero Burning Spear. That day will be very special for me because I remember being a kid running around in my village listening to Burning Spear sing…” – and here Fakoly sings me the lyrics to Spear’s masterpiece Slavery Days – “Do you remember the days of slavery?”

I tell Fakoly that for a new generation of reggae fans, he is as important and beloved today as Spear and Marley ever were.

Fakoly – whose father died of cancer in 1987, and his mother of a stroke in 2009, but not before she saw her son perform live in Paris – doesn’t miss a beat.

“I’m flattered and honoured to be idolized,” he says. “But Bob is the real prophet. Not I.”

I grew up in a home where my family was deeply appreciative of Black History Month because my Mauritian grandfather, Felix Laventure – a brown man and Cambridge-educated lawyer who became the mayor of the capital city of Port Louis in the Southern-African island-nation of Mauritius – was so popular with the poor that the British appointed him a government minister in Mauritius.

When my grandfather introduced a bill in parliament that would expropriate land from the rich plantation owners to create farming co-ops for the poor, the rich landowners freaked out. The Brits wanted to get rid of him. But when my grandfather refused an ambassadorship in Washington, DC, a game of political brinksmanship eventually forced my grandfather into exile. He moved to Canada (along the way spending a week in Jamaica to meet his brother-in-arms, Michael Manley, who one day would become the Prime Minister of Jamaica) and when my grandfather died in 1995 a minute of silence was held in the Mauritian parliament in his honour. Today a bustling town named Laventure is located where the old family sugar-cane plantation used to be.

But just over two centuries before my grandfather arrived in Montreal, this city was very much part of the slave-trading world. As Canadian scholar Afua Cooper, author of the critically-hailed bestseller The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal, told me, “Canada was not an isolated colony. [Most] colony officials were educated, sophisticated men who had careers in the West Indies before coming here.”

Canadian slavery differed from American slavery in that there was little plantation-style slavery. Blacks in Canada were mostly “domestics,” or house slaves. But Cooper points out the system here was equally ruthless: African slaves were punished, whipped and sometimes killed by their masters.

Montreal slave Marie-Joseph Angelique

There were roughly 1,200 slaves in New France in 1734, the year Montreal slave Marie-Joseph Angélique torched her master’s home in her bid to escape being sold to a Quebec government official for 600 pounds of gunpowder. The fire spread and burnt down 46 buildings in Old Montreal, including a convent and the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, originally founded by Jeanne Mance in 1642.

Angélique was sentenced to death on June 21, 1734, the same day she was publicly hung on a specially built gallows on Rue St-Paul, right in front of the charred remains of her master’s home. Montreal’s hangman and torturer Mathieu Léveillé – himself a black man from Martinique – then burnt her corpse on a pyre. (Read my 2006 story about Marie-Joseph Angélique’s trial and hanging by clicking here).

Today, the tragic story of Angélique has become a powerful and potent symbol of black freedom in Canada. But over 275 years later, the bronze plaque marking the site of Angélique’s hanging is now missing, perhaps even stolen – typical of the way Canada still treats its Black history.

February 15 update:Montreal city council is expected on February 20 to adopt a plan to name a stretch of green space just west of Champs de Mars métro station to honour Marie-Joseph Angélique’s memory. The official inauguration of the park is set for Aug. 23, International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Click here for the full story in The Gazette.

So the theme for this year’s 21st edition of Black History Month is Imagine a New World. Read Gazette columnist Bill Brownstein’s interview with BHM spokesperson and fab Montreal stand-up comedian Dorothy Rhau by clicking here.

Also, here are my choice picks for this year’s Black History Month events in Montreal.

Haiti Museum A Concordia University panel of Caribbean professionals speaking about their individual journeys. These motivational speeches highlight the paths of success employed by each professional in varying fields of expertise. A question and answer period will follow to encourage students of Concordia University. February 6 at noon. Duration: 3 hours. At the CSU Lounge (1455 De Maisonneuve West, 7th floor). Info 514-848-7450 or click here.

Posing Beauty in African and African American Culture Author and NYU Tisch School of the Arts professor Deborah Willis will explore the contested ways in which African and African-American beauty have been represented in art. February 10 at 6:30 p.m. At Concordia University (EV-1.605, 1515 Ste-Catherine St. West). Info 514-273-3274 or click here.

Tiken Jah Fakoly The roots-rock-reggae warrior from Ivory Coast loves Montreal, the city that launched his international career at Nuits d’Afrique in 2002. Fakoly returns for a love-in at the Olympia Theatre (1004 Ste-Catherine Street east) on February 17 at 8 p.m. Tickets $51.54 including TX+ S/C. Info: 514-499-9239 or click here. Stay tuned for Pop TART’s interview with Tiken Jah Fakoly later this month.

The History of Jazz with Charlie Ellison The Concordia University music professor and jazz trumpet player gives a one-hour presentation on aspects of the history of jazz. February 23 at 12:30 p.m. At the Atwater Library (1200 Atwater Ave.). Info 514-935-7344 or click here.

Xzootik Queer dance party for LGBT African-Canadians. Kompa, Zouk, Soca, Reggae and Deejay Inno at The CFC nightclub (6388 Rue St-Hubert, corner Beaubien, in old Club Zoobizarre). February 24 beginning at 10 p.m. $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Info: 514-432-9907 or 438-876-5602. Click here for event Facebook page.

The Imani Gospel Singers The Montreal gospel choir founded in 1993 by choir director Marcia Bailey will perform a program of spiritual music and discuss the evolution of Black gospel music. Incidentally, IMANI means “faith” in Swahili. Learn more about the choir by clicking here. February 17 at 12:30 p.m. At the Atwater Library (1200 Atwater Ave.). Info 514-935-7344 or click here.

Legends of African Football Photo exhibit about the history of football (soccer) in Africa. Runs until February 12, Tues–Fri 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sat 10a.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission. At Montréal – Maison de l’Afrique (6256 Henri-Julien). Info 514-875-7710 or click here.

Gala Miss Afrique Montreal The second annual beauty contest will be held at the Centre Pierre Peladeau (300 De Maisonneuve East). February 11 at 7 p.m. Tickets $30, more at the door. Info and tickets 514-970-2110 or click here.

Soul Queen Kim Richardson I call Montreal soul singer Kim Richardson and her mom Jackie Richardson the Whitney and Cissy Houston of Canada. They are amazing singers. Kim and her band headline Montreal’s Jello Martini Bar (151 Ontario Street East) on February 3-4. Showtime is 10:30 p.m. Admission is $9. Click here for POP TART’s feature story on how Jello became one of North America’s premiere live R’n’B concert venues.

Kim Richardson headlines Jello, Feb 3-4 (Photo by Richard Burnett)

Massimadi: Festival des films LGBT afro-caribéens The 4th annual edition of Montreal’s black LGBT film festival runs February 6-12 at UQÁM, the NFB and Cinémathèque québécoise. Incidentally, festival name “massimadi” comes from combining “massissi” and “madivinèz”, pejorative creole terms for gay and lesbian. One of the dozen films being screened is Leave it on the Floor, a terrific musical that’s a cross between Rent, Glee and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Lots of plot twists, some truly fabulous numbers and glorious costumes. While director Sheldon Larry’s film is a love story between Brad and Carter, it is also very much a loving tribute to NYC and L.A.’s vogue scenes. Screens at the NFB (1564 Rue St-Denis) on February 11 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets and other info: 514-373-1953 or lick here.

Cutline: Leave it on the Floor is a cross between Rent, Glee and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and takes place in L.A.’s vogue/ball scene

Dawn Tyler Watson Montreal’s Queen of the Blues performs a special jazz BHM “Afrophilya” concert at Old Montreal’s terrific live R’n’B music venue Piano Rouge (Montreal’s old famed Night Magic jazz nightclub). Dawn once told me about playing concerts for gay audiences at Montreal’s Divers/Cite festival, “If I write a classic [song] like my man done beat me up, it’s important that there is a survivor aspect. I think gay audiences [have had it rough] and they love the idea of an entertainer just going up there and expressing themselves. We are who we are and I am what I am.” Watson headlines Le Piano Rouge (22 Rue St-Paul East) on February 22 at 9 p.m. $8. Other BHM “Afrophilya” guests at Piano Rouge include Marie-Christine Depestre (Feb 3), Carlos Morgan (Feb 9) and Slim Williams (Feb 25). Info 514-928-0855 or click here.

Bugs with Dawn Tyler Watson, at Piano Rouge, Feb 22

Sounds of Colour The annual BHM show by students from the Montreal School of Performing Arts, run by force of nature school founder Josa Maule for the past 20 years (Josa has also been named one of the City of Montreal’s 2012 BHM laureates). This year’s concerts will showcase African-Canadians Matthew De Costa , slave woman Marie-Joseph Angélique, Viola Desmond (who protested with Rosa Parks), black soldiers from 1812, a tribute to Etta James and Soul Train’s Don Cornelius. Cake and coffee also served at February 25 performance (8 p.m.) and February 26 matinee (2 p.m.). $10. Info: 514-483-5526 or click here.

New Canadian Kid Black Theatre Workshop’s Black History Month School Tour Production of New Canadian Kid by Dennis Foon (the play is about being bullied at school) tours schools throughout the month of February, with a public 2 p.m. matinee at Concordia University’s F.C. Smith Auditorium (7141 Sherbrooke St. West) on February 25. $10 adults, $6 chidlren. Info 514-932-1104 ext 226 or click here.

Bugs with Sylvie Desgroseilliers, Feb 25 at Cabaret Mile-End

Sylvie Desgroseilliers and the Chorale du Conservatoire de Musique Moderne Montreal soul singer Sylvie Desgroseilliers got her start with the famed Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir back in the 1980s. She returns to her gospel roots for this special concert at Cabaret Mile-End (5240 Parc Ave.), February 25 at 7:30 pm. $30. Info 514-882-3334. Click here to see the entire Fade to Black BHM music-concert series.

Imani family and Full Gospel Church Reverend Darryl Gray moves his growing congregation from his old Richmond Street church in Little Burgundy to the gorgeous Crowley Arts Centre (5325 Crowley Ave, just off Decarie around the corner from Vendome metro station). The Rev’s first service here will be at 11 a.m. on Sunday, February 5, to mark Black History Month and will continue at the Crowley Arts Centre until Imani purchases a new permanent home. Info: 514-846-2020.

Héma-Québec’s Black History Month Blood Drive Québec’s collective blood supply requires more donors from all communities, including the Black communities which are particularly affected by sickle-cell anemia, a hereditary blood disease whose treatment can require several blood transfusions at regular intervals. A blood drive organized by the Table ronde du Mois de l’histoire des Noirs (Black History Month Round Table) will be held on February 18 between 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the Centre d’éducation des adultes (2515 Delisle Street) in Montreal. Héma-Québec info: -800-847-2525.

Bugs enjoying a rum-and-ginger at the home of Doudou Boicel

Doudou Boicel and The Rising Sun Photos and other archival materials from legendary Montreal impresario Doudou Boicel’s private collection are being displayed this month in the McCord Museum’s permanent Montreal – Points de Vue exhibit. There are pics of Boicel with such jazz and blues icons as John Lee Hooker, Nina Simone, Muddy Waters and BB King, as well as programs from his 1978 inaugural Rising Sun Festijazz at Place des Arts that starred, among others, Sarah Vaughan, Dexter Gordon and Willie Dixon.

No less an authority than American blues legend Taj Mahal once told me, “The Rising Sun was an exciting place. Whenever the Rising Sun was on our tour itinerary, everybody in the band would get excited because when you went to Doudou’s place, you could hear every kind of music. There was no other place on the road [in North America] that was comparable to playing there, except for maybe a couple in Europe. At Doudou’s you really felt at home.”

The rest of the line-up for Montreal’s 21st edition of Black History Month is equally varied and family-friendly. More than 600 activities will be held in Montreal. For the complete schedule of activities, visit the Black History Month website at www.montrealblackhistorymonth.com